1. Field of Invention
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to sharing resource information via wired and/or wireless communication.
2. Background
Modern society has adopted, and is becoming reliant upon, devices for wireless communication. For example, cellular telephones continue to proliferate in the global marketplace due to technological improvements in both communication quality and device functionality. These wireless communication devices (WCDs) have become common for both personal and business use, allowing users to transmit and receive voice, text and graphical data from a multitude of geographic locations. The communication networks utilized by these devices span different frequencies and cover different transmission distances, each having specific features desirable for various applications.
The desire for users to employ wireless apparatuses in many different settings continues to keep pace with new communication enhancements incorporated in these devices. Additional functionality such as, for example, messaging clients (email, instant messenger, etc.), business applications (document readers, scheduling programs, interfaces to inventory management systems, etc.), location systems (GPS, mapping, navigation, etc.), multimedia and entertainment applications, as well as many more. These various applications may retrieve information via wired or wireless communication that, in view of a user configuration, may be required in order to perform the requested activity. The information needed during application execution may come from, for example, a remote source accessible via wireless communication.
While the above exemplary applications, and any results outputted during their execution, may only reside locally on an apparatus, it is foreseeable that in some cases the results of these applications would not only be desirable to the initially requesting user, but also to other consumers that are interested in the same information. Typical architectures utilized in storing information for public consumption usually central the shared materials, or references to the shared materials in the form of, for example, a cross-reference table. At least one problem with this exemplary configuration is that a great deal of resource overhead is created by maintaining a centrally located cross-reference resource. The various burdens on the system may include, for example, the need for a large amount of storage space to house the cross-reference information, substantial processing to receive, maintain and deliver the shared information to various consumers using the local references of target device, high bandwidth access enabled to support a large amount of simultaneous connections both contributing and retrieving information, etc.